The ubiquitous utilization of wires for catheter directed therapy has revolutionized medical care in the fields of interventional radiology, neuroradiology, cardiology, and neurosurgery, among others. However, since the initial advent of wire and catheter directed therapeutics, more complex techniques have been developed that required complimentary development of equally advanced and expensive wires and catheters. Often, the more sophisticated interventions may require multiple wires, catheters, and microcatheters to complete the procedure. These lengthy wires and catheters are often difficult to store and control outside the body, and current storage systems are suboptimal for rapid storage and retrieval of the individual desired wire or device; moreover, a single unintentionally dropped or contaminated wire or catheter can equate to a substantial financial loss in the order of hundreds of dollars.
Currently, the most common technique to store wires uses a single sterile plastic basin containing saline fluid in which all wires used during the procedure are stored. Small caliber, long wires are difficult to find and differentiate from each other, often tangle with other wires, and commonly snag the other stored wires during retrieval from the basin, unintentionally pulling them to the floor or allowing for contamination. Therefore, there is a need for improved storage and retrieval systems for wires and catheters used in the medical setting.